City of Los Angeles to pay $38.2M in federal housing lawsuit
The city of Los Angeles has agreed to pay $38.2 million to settle allegations it failed to meet federal accessibility requirements when it used U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development grant funds for multifamily affordable housing, the U.S. Department of Justice announced today.
The settlement resolves a 2017 whistleblower suit filed by a Los Angeles resident who uses a wheelchair, and by the Fair Housing Council of San Fernando Valley, a nonprofit disability-rights advocacy group.
The claim alleged that, for over a decade, the city failed to follow federal accessibility laws -- including the Rehabilitation Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Fair Housing Act -- when building and rehabilitating affordable multifamily properties, and failed to make its affordable multifamily housing program accessible to people with disabilities.
"By failing to make certain that HUD-funded multifamily housing was appropriately built or rehabilitated to meet federal accessibility requirements, the city discriminated against people with disabilities," said HUD Inspector General Rae Oliver Davis.
The laws require 5% of all units in certain federally assisted multifamily housing to be accessible for people with mobility impairments and an additional 2% to be accessible for people with visual and auditory impairments, according to the Justice Department.
Recipients of these funds must also maintain a publicly available list of accessible units, detail accessibility features and designate at least one city employee to coordinate accessibility efforts, which the Justice Department said L.A. did not do.
The federal government alleged that the housing was not structurally accessible because of failures like slopes that were too steep, counters that were too high, and thresholds that did not permit wheelchair access.
Further allegations include that the city failed to maintain a publicly available list of accessible units and their accessibility features, and that the city knowingly and falsely certified to HUD that it complied with these grant requirements despite its failure to do so.
"In this instance, HUD determined that the City of Los Angeles fell far short of its responsibilities to provide HUD-funded accessible housing, but the settlement agreement provides a fresh start for HUD and the City to work collaboratively to address the City's pressing housing needs," said General Counsel Damon Smith of HUD.
Meanwhile, Sharon Sandow, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles Housing Department, said in a statement that the agency "is and remains deeply committed to ensuring accessibility in publicly funded housing for tenants throughout Los Angeles."
